I can’t see how this is fear mongering. Device was not acting against owner’s will: that person specifically does not tighten relevant privacy settings and enables always-on mic because they see useful content suggestions as a feature.
It is different from my outlook (and I take it yours too), but I think that point of view deserves the right to exist.
The issue is that now when I am talking to someone like that in real life, I know I may be implicitly agreeing that Google would pick up my speech as well. It’s a clash similar to one between a person (e.g., my mom) who grants messenger apps full access to their phone’s address book for convenience, and their contact (e.g., myself) who does not want their information to be shared with Facebook et al.
Addendum: a cursory search confirms this experience.
— https://www.vice.com/en/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listeni...
— https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/your-smartphone-listening-or-c... (2019)
— https://www.quora.com/Does-Google-listen-to-my-conversations... (the first answer does not mention ads, but others share similar experience to what I saw)
— Counterpoint: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49585682 “phones that secretly listen to us are a myth” (2019). Notably, with all my respect for BBC, this article lacks a lot of context (did they turn off voice activation before testing? what were their privacy settings?), and to test devices listening they played commercials in presence of the phone rather than using voice (I have relatively high confidence that modern devices can easily distinguish between speech nearby and sound from a commercial before recording leaves the phone).
Some sources claim that as of last year Google is changing the way their apps work. Not sure if they stop listening or stop showing relevant content.
(I don’t personally own an Android phone, and even if I did I would have turned off virtual assistants & disabled always-on mic just as I do with my iPhone, so I wouldn’t be able to present first-hand proof.)
Every company vehemently denies this is possible.
In case of my friend showing me this, this happened a few months ago and I can’t remember exactly how the demonstration went. I’m inclined to believe there was no hotword activation, as I remember myself being quite startled (at that point I disbelieved that a phone can be listening and suggesting relevant content right away), and as you noted with hotword activation it would have been markedly less surprising.
Until they get caught. They they issue a wishy-washing non-apology and put out a press release stating "We can do better."
We've been to this rodeo before.
If listening constantly was widespread it would have a dramatic effect on power consumption - and so battery life - and be noticed.
